What will firms trading or involved in derivatives look like in 5 years?

Regulatory oversight will ensure that, even if the current zeal lasts only 3 years (assuming a political shift in attitude 1 year out and 2 years of starvation budgets to thin out current muscular oversight).

Secrets are not necessarily the conspiracies of derivatives cabals in the shadows but the knowledge that we practitioners have about improvements that can be made in the technology infrastructure and business process that supports this complex activity.

With regulators not only focused on supervision against the backdrop of current and anticipated rules on the books, but also pushing for best practice as they have observed it on their journeys poking around the infrastructure of market leaders in the industry and also now sharing notes with other regulators; there is a lot of sunshine coming the way of regulated entities.

However, that sunshine is an opportunity to rethink and rebuild some of this infrastructure, process and the strategy around how these things will evolve.